experimenting with arrangement, etc., 3 reviewing checking context, connections, assessing impact, editing, 4 focusing that is making sure you are
getting the message across you want to get across, and 5 generating ideas and evaluation assessing the draft andor subsequent drafts.”
2.2.5 Text Genres
“Text is the words that are put together, whether spoken or written, to communicate a meaning”
Anderson and Anderson, 1997:1. Derewianka 1990:17‐29 tells, “Text is any meaningful
stretch of language whether oral or written. Texts are structured in different ways
to achieve their purposes. In a written text, all information has to be in the text itself
because the reader is usually distant in time and space and cannot ask for clarifications
or extra details.”
2.2.5.1 Concept of Genre
Gerot and Wignell 1994:17 state that “a genre can be defined as a culturally specific
text type which results from using language written or speaking to help accomplish
something. Genres are culture specific and have particular purposes, stages, and
linguistic features.”
Hyland 2004:4 argues that genre is “a term for grouping texts together,
representing how writers typically use language to respond to recurring situation. The
concept of genre is based on the idea that members of a community usually have little
difficulty in recognizing similarities in the texts they use frequently and are able to draw
on their repeated experiences with such texts to read, understand, and perhaps write
them relatively easily.”
Hyland 2002:61 also give another argument that “genre theorists assume that
the organization of a text can be described in relation to others like it, and to the choices
and constraints acting on the writer in a particular social context…Genre theorists thus
seek to reveal the salient features and conventions which are shaped by communicative
purpose.”
2.2.5.2 Genre‐Based Writing
Writing is considered as a means of communication. The communicative purpose of
writing, however, is determined by the culture in which the text is used for different
culture affects different meaning to a given text.
Harmer 2001:154 states that “writing is a process that what we write is often
heavily influenced by the constraints of genres, then this elements have to be presented
in learning activities.” For writing teachers, therefore, “genre is useful concept because
it pulls together language, content, and contexts, offering teachers a means of
presenting students with explicit and systematic explanations of the way writing works
to communicate” Hyland 2004:6.
So, this concept of teaching guides the students in achieving their purposes
effectively by relating language to context which “is not just the background against
which writing takes place; it is a co‐constructed by the writer and reader to anticipating
each other’s responses and needs” Hyland, 2004:25. As the result, “students who are
writing within a certain genre need to consider a number of different factors. They need
to have knowledge of the topic, the convention and the style of the genre, and the
context in which their writing will be read, and by whom” Harmer, 2001:259. Or, in
other words, students who are attempting to write within a given genre are to consider
many factors related to the genre and the context as well.
According to Gerot and Macken as quoted by Hartono 2005:6‐9:
Genre can be divided into Story Genres and Factual Genres.
Story Gennres include narrative, anecdote, recount, and
spoof. Meanwhile, factual genres include procedure,
explanation, report, exposition, discussion, description,
review, commentary, and news item. Every text‐type has
different social function, schematic structures, and
language features.
Genre is viewed as the gate between the language and the communicative
purpose of language. Through genre, the language can be transmitted based on the
given text and the context appropriately. The classification of the genre will basically let
the use of the language effectively into the text and the context.
Based on School‐Based Curriculum KTSP 2006:36, “there are many texts
taught in senior high school. They are procedure, descriptive, recount, narrative, report,
news item, analytical exposition, hortatory exposition, spoof, explanation, discussion,
review, and public speaking.” Thus, all of the senior high school students are to
recognize and master those types of texts and the features within to help them use
English communicatively, both in written and spoken form.
2.2.5.3 The Advantages of Genre‐Based Writing
